Skip links

Main navigation

Long Lost Best Friends

Yesterday was the usual kind of weekday, plenty of tasks on the to-do list and plenty of procrastinating before getting to said tasks!

For some reason, in between scheduling a client’s social media posts for the week and editing images for another’s website I found myself on Facebook searching the name of one of my old girlfriends who I have not even thought about in years. We went to high school together and developed a friendship when there were only a few of us from our year 7-10 high school who went to this particular year 11-12 high school. Our friendship continued through the early years of uni despite her moving some 300kms away to study. I’d go and visit her at uni and stay during the holidays and vice-versa. We had some crazy times, so many laughs. It was a blast when we got together.

Then towards the end of uni we both had boyfriends and the guys we were dating were nothing alike so time together became less and less.

She got married not long out of uni and then we didn’t see each other for years until she started work at the same company that I was with but in a different department. At that time I was leaving that company to work full time for my now hubby’s business so that was the last time I crossed paths with her.

I’ve thought about her here and there over the years when something triggered a memory but it was nothing more than a fleeting thought so I don’t really know what brought about yesterdays’ Facebook search.

When I first found her profile I thought maybe I would get in touch.

Her Facebook profile is pretty limited but it appears that she is still married and has 2 children. Further searching led me to her LinkedIn profile and it seems that she has been quite successful in her field. She has gained qualifications at a few universities. Based on these few tidbits I have pieced together an idyllic life for her.

And that is when I decided that I would not get in touch.

Because hey, she has multiple degrees, is successful in her work life, still looks fantastic in her profile pic, lives in a popular area of Sydney. I, on the other hand, have done nothing with my degree, we stumble along with constant financial pressures, in my profile pic I am carrying an extra 12 kilos that really can’t be blamed on baby weight when your youngest is 8 years old and bags under my eyes that no concealer can hide and I live in a shitty old 3 bedroom house in Western Sydney where the roof leaks and the chaos reigns.

The way that life turned out I don’t actually have contact with any of my school friends, we all pretty much took different paths and given that this was before mobile phones and emails etc… keeping in contact was a bit more effort than it is these days and so one way or another we all lost touch. So what was a spur of the moment Facebook search that completely came out of nowhere kinda left me amazed at how different our lives were after some 20 plus years!

I have no idea what I was expecting to see when I searched her name! And I have no idea why I am comparing myself to someone else, even though I have no desire to have gone down the path that she did…wow bit cray cray hey!

I have never had a strong desire to be a part of the corporate world and working for hubby’s business has been ideal for me. Also I am not the kind of person that could ever have left my babies to be cared for, it’s just not me, I couldn’t do it, and in making that decision hubby and I have known that there would be sacrifices financially etc but I have been there for their every milestone and their every moment and that is worth more than anything to me. Besides I can’t keep this tiny house clean…I don’t need a bigger one! (and I am happy for people with their dream homes and dream careers and we are all different, and I know that and that’s cool!)

And it’s not all bad because hubby and I are collectively good at making bad decisions, like the one where we just put our tax returns towards a family trip to Melbourne for Easter rather than towards the car rego lol !!! We know all too well that you only live once, and that your kids only want to hang out with you for so long!